May 2020 Hatch-A-Long

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Well, 3 of the 4 peafowl eggs are fertilized! One of the eggs has a completely detached air cell and it moves around the egg like a giant bubble so I'm not going to get my hopes up on that one but it's developing none the less! They're on day 13 and dancing around in their eggs tonight!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=533589450665461

Very cool!!!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Goosies finish in 8 days--but with geese, hatch day seems to be more of a suggestion than a consistent prediction... from what I can read. I wonder whether I can put them in with the ducklings, who will be a week old by then... and what on earth will I do with the other thirteen goose eggs I added because my broody goose wasn't committed yet--since I already stuffed the other incubator full to the gills (knowing my one rooster can't possibly cover all my many girls)? By then I'll be able to toss clears, but 13 goose eggs need a lot of space. Of course by then I'll be likely tossing some goose eggs, too... Oh dear--maybe another incubator?

Yeah, I also set extra eggs because I was sure our new rooster wouldn’t have covered all of the girls. Guess what...

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

So, yesterday was day 7 for our 6 BCM and 12 OE eggs! These are the eggs that I set extra of because I was sure that our new roo wasn’t covering all of the hens... I candled and... all are developing! This is also the clutch that we started because I was sure a hen would go broody and she could integrate for us... Yeah, looks like that’s not happening! We decided to keep all 18 eggs and make this whole group our “meat birds” that my DD has been wanting to try. That way we won’t have to integrate them (tough to do in our flock). They can brood inside then go into our tractor with an electric fence. We had meant to keep the pullets and meat bird the cockerels, so now we will need another set that we put under a broody hen.

 

[Vantic]

Another air cell question. Should I postion the eggs on day 18 so the pulled down part of the air cell is up when laying them on their sides? This is my second hatch, the first hatch I just put them in there ..

 

[MedicDog]

I didn't think I'd be hatching again for another year but another one of my hens has went broody! She's a sablepoot and she has sat pretty for a couple of days and I've successfully managed to move her into the maternity ward without breaking her.

I wanted to put some Bantam Rhode Island reds under her but the seller a couple of miles away wouldn't do collection (even if I kept my distance) but wanted to post them instead... I said no. So I managed to find some LF Light Sussex eggs near my work who allowed for collection. She's now sat on 4 eggs and her due date is 19th May.

 

[Trisseh]

My Indian runner eggs I ordered are on their way! Should receive them tomorrow, which means I’ll be setting them Thursday. They’ll squeak in at the very end of May if they hatch on time. Hopefully they don’t get too messed up from shipping... the hatchery I ordered from uses the foam egg shippers, and they’re coming from about 8-9 hours away, so we’ll see.

 

[SharW75]

Of the 28 eggs we're incubating, all but 7 were shipped. The first seller sent 14 and the majority of them looked really good. There were some jiggly air cells, but none detached and none saddled. I let them sit for 24 hours before putting them in the incubator. The other 7 eggs arrived yesterday, and they had a much rougher trip. They were supposed to have been shipped out last Tuesday, but instead it was Thursday before they got into the USPS system. That meant they spent all day Sunday sitting who knows where. I picked them up yesterday morning and candled them. Surprisingly, there were no completely loose air cells, and none saddled--just really jiggly. I let them sit a bit, but then I put them right in the incubator. My thoughts were that they were already older eggs than all the other ones, and since my automatic turner holds the eggs upright, I figured they needed to go in as soon as possible. I had the turner unplugged so they were incubating, just not moving. Today I plugged the turner in. Hopefully that was ok...but I figured I had to keep all the other eggs in mind as well. I guess we'll see what happens. My temp has been steady around 100.2 and humidity has been between 37% and 42%. Humidity was 34% this morning so I added some more water and it's coming back up. I haven't incubated in years, so this may as well be my first time. The broodies usually do it for us, but I thought the kids would like to try it this way.

 

[Stonewall Acres]

We have 7 eggs in the incubator & one egg under our very determined silkie due to hatch the 4th. Having a broody hen is a first for us. We are incubating eggs from our own flock, so it will fun to see what fun mixes we hatch out. Our girls are BCM, OE, and one Orpington cross. But our roosters are a silkie, a buff polish & a BCM.

 

[BertyRoux]

Day 18.75...
Sitting on my lockdown hands.

 

[CindyinSD]

Yeah, I also set extra eggs because I was sure our new rooster wouldn’t have covered all of the girls. Guess what...

Yeahhh... I candled them last night at the end of day one...

I think most of them are showing signs... I was kinda joking about that third incubator, but not so sure now. I need a bigger one, though. I read that with the deficit in functional processing plants, chicken factories are expecting a necessity to "depopulate" their stock. I suspect we maybe should, all of us, hatch away to our little hearts' content. Our families and friends might need our help.